Dear Alex

Thanks for your question. I was about to post a similar one because it
puzzles me how in some museums (particularly in those created several
decades or even a century ago, as the one where I work) there is so much
'lost' information.

Not only in the library, where we can find articles in revues or books
related to the collections, but in the old accession books, in the
registration records that began to be filled years ago and were abandoned,
in the ancient catalogues, in manuscripts of all types, in the
administrative records, etc.

In the archaeological museum where I work (in Lisbon) there is even a great
documental legacy from its founder and director for thirty years. Besides
the packages with his own manuscripts and manuscripts from other people that
he collected during his life, we have the correspondence he received from
the last two decades of XIX century until his death, in 1941 (above 3.000
authors and about 24.000 letters).

Of course, before the computer age it would be impossible to deal with all
this information in a integral way but now I think its possible and it must
be done. The problem is 'how' and that's why I also would like to hear the
opinion of those who have solved the problem.

Thanks to all

Margarida Gouveia
[log in to unmask]